![]() It seems reasonable to infer that a modest wave of fox sparrows hit the Vineyard during the second and third week of January, bringing single birds to be detected at feeders and, perhaps, other individuals to be overlooked in more natural settings. ![]() This relative wealth of fox sparrows was interesting, given that all-out effort by dozens of observers failed to tally a fox sparrow for the CBC. At least four other individuals were visiting feeders around the Island one, in Tisbury, ended up as a meal for a Cooper’s hawk. The presence of a fox sparrow in my yard became less surprising as other observations of the species filtered into the Martha’s Vineyard Bird Alert Facebook page. It seemed so wedded to digging with its two-footed kicks that it performed this move even in the midst of seeds lying visible on the snow surface. ![]() During its short but intense bouts of feeding, it displayed an astonishing level of aggression toward other birds, pressing home attacks of pecking and biting on any other bird that came too close. With better light, I had prolonged opportunities to watch the sparrow in action. The next day, cold temperatures and deep snow again brought this secretive bird out into the open. Despite dim light, the snow-filled air, and blobs of wet snow pasted to the glass of our sliding door, I enjoyed good views of this distinctive songbird as it dug energetically for seeds, raising little clouds of snow with the powerful, double-footed kicks that are a trademark foraging move of the species. With a foot or more of wet, drifting snow covering up whatever the fox sparrow had been feeding on, my elusive visitor finally came into the open.Īs the snow fell, the fox sparrow joined the usual juncos and song sparrows in feeding on bird seed I spread on our deck. But the blizzard that swept the Island on January 29 changed the game. I’d get occasional glimpses of the bird lurking in the dim light under the cedars, perhaps eating fallen cedar fruits, after which it would disappear for days at a time. I’d recorded the species before as a “yard bird,” but the most recent occasion was about 20 years ago.įor a couple of weeks, my fox sparrow remained nearly undetectable. So I was pleased when, in mid-January, I noticed the chunky shape and rufous tones of a fox sparrow hidden deep in one of the red cedars in our Oak Bluffs yard.
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